Bent mech hanger. Will chain self destruct?

[shouldbworking]

Bit of an off this morning in the rain, washed out under braking. No serious harm done to myself but the bike now has a very jaunty mech hanger. The deraileur was in among the spokes when I stopped, I bent it back out enough that I could use a couple of gears at the bottom of the cassette, then rode the remaining 6 miles in.

The chainline is understandably well out of kilter, probably beyond the worst combinations possible on a triple mtb (this is my road bike). Is the chain likely to self destruct? have I already destroyed it by putting 6 miles on it in that state?

Could be an expensive bike week if I end up having to get a new chain / cassette etc. The chain and gears have about 3.5k miles on them so doubt id get away with changing just the chain.

[7Llewelyn]

I don't think you'd have ruined your chain and cassette in that short a distance. Bike chains are quite "loose" in construction as they're designed to run with different front and rear sprocket alignments, the trick to chain longevity is minimising these angles with sensible front and rear gear selection and regular lubing of course.

[shouldbworking]

It didn't self destruct in the end. Put it into a gear closest approximating a normal chainline and very sedately span home.

£18 for a mech hanger seems harsh but could have been a lot worse.

[rhinochopig]

It'll be fine.

When you have some spare cash you might consider buying a mech alignment tool. It bolts into the mech hanger and allows you to tweak the hanger back to true - which they seldom are from new TBH. Getting it parallel in both planes really improves shift quality.

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Park-Tool-DAG2-Derailleur-...

54 quid so it'll pay for itself after 3 crashes